It's about the same magnitude of an issue as with guns, I think. In both cases you have the vast majority of people responsibly partaking, but you can't deny th

It's about the same magnitude of an issue as with guns, I think. In both cases you have the vast majority of people responsibly partaking, but you can't deny that their presence makes some things much worse. I think the dynamics and beliefs are similar between the two: your primary exposure to alcohol could be having fun with it and friends, or it could be from growing up in an alcoholic family. You could grow up thinking guns are just a normal, if somewhat dangerous, tool (like a lawnmower), or most exposure could come from salacious gun news stories. It will all color how you feel about the topics. (stats from memory, but I think order of magnitude correct). 30k gun deaths a year, of which 20k are suicide. Self-inflicted death from alcohol dwarfs 20k, and deaths to others from, e.g., drunk driving are comparable to gun homicides. Then you have the splashy things like school shootings, which I think are roughly comparable to driving a car through a Christmas parade while intoxicated.